The reputation management industry has come a long way since the BIA Kelsey Group predicted that it would become a $5 billion industry sector by 2016. Indeed, there are more review management solutions, sentiment analysis monitoring services, and agencies engaged in ORM than ever before!

However, I am not certain that I would call online reputation management a “mature” industry, yet. Search algorithms have become more sophisticated, making search engine optimization of positive content more challenging to supplant negative items in search. Social media platforms, responsive to criticisms for enabling astroturfing in politics, have tightened security such that it is more challenging for agencies to manage accounts on behalf of reputation clientele. Laws protecting major online companies from liabilities for assisting defamation victims continue to be entrenched. And, personal and private data has become more and more exposed despite some efforts to reduce the public’s exposure.

All of this has made reputations more vulnerable to serious damage and has made reputation management more difficult in terms of clean-up of issues or even proactive development.

But, there are some positive things happening, too, so things are not all doom-and-gloom. Consciousness about online harassment, bullying, extortion and sextortion are on the upswing. The FBI and the Department of Justice have taken more of an interest in helping victims in such situations, and local law enforcement agencies have been increasing their capabilities for assisting in such situations. (See the California Attorney General’s Cyber Exploitation resource, for example.)

So, I have a few predictions for what may be in store for online reputations in 2020 — prepare yourself and prepare your company for what is one of the most important aspects of personal and corporate identity.

2020 predictions for online reputation management

1. SEO will continue to become more difficult for improving and controlling online reputations. My prediction 14 years ago that the practice of SEO might become eclipsed by user-centered design has largely come true. Most respectable SEO consultants now incorporate usability factors and user experience into large portions of their analysis and recommendations, in addition to search-oriented technical elements. Simple methods and tricks for manipulating search engines to rank webpages higher have largely been replaced by solid, mainstream marketing practices combined with a user-centered design focus and solid technical website construction. Further, the advent of search engines’ machine learning processing has made website ranking determinations far more holistic in nature — making it hard to tell what factors are ones that tip the decision as to whether one page outranks another or not. Ironically, aspects of reputation are now search ranking factors, so SEO practitioners need to pay attention to reputational elements as part of holistic optimization efforts.

2. Social media profiles will continue to grow in importance for one’s online identity. Not only do well-developed and actively-maintained social media profiles tend to rank advantageously in search engine results, but users seek them out for individuals and companies when exploring online identities that are new to them. For individuals, simply hiding one’s social media profiles does not really cut it anymore when potential employers and business partners are seeking information. And, consumers deeply desire access via social media profiles to communicate directly to companies — neglecting a company’s social media presence can result in increased consumer frustration, and result in more negative online reviews and ratings.

3. Laws will continue to favor large internet companies, protecting them from liability for content produced by third parties that may appear on their platforms. Silicon Valley lobbyists continue to hold sway in Washington and in state legislatures, keeping laws very friendly towards the large internet companies, resulting in keeping them largely non-liable for helping individuals and organizations remove false and defamatory information online. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act was enacted in 1996 specifically to save internet companies on costs, while the U.S. legislature knew it would result in collateral damage for small companies and individuals. Arguably, it is time for Section 230 immunity to be changed, but there has been little movement to do anything that would substantially help people. While you might believe that our European counterparts have it better due to their “right to be forgotten” laws, this online “wild west” free-for-all that is maintained in the U.S. negatively impacts anyone in the EU that does business with America because their right to be forgotten is limited to searches conducted within their countries — people in the U.S. can still see contents in search that is no longer relevant or false about them.

4. Business review monitoring will become easier and less costly for companies. There are now multiple companies that provide some degree of review monitoring services across multiple review sites and for multiple business locations. What was once a difficult and costly effort for major chain store companies is now far easier to do from a central office. The increasing number of providers of these services is also starting to enable lower costs as competition in the marketplace produces more options.

5. Public relations and crisis communications will rise as even more important strategic components for online reputation, as opposed to strategies of only ignoring-or-displacing of negative items online. Public relations has been a solid discipline since before the internet, of course, but companies and individuals are again recognizing its value now after many modern companies attempted to skate by without professional staff or external support for public communications. Many have tried a do-it-yourself approach to this, and most fail miserably when trying to position themselves and to respond to public relations crises. Responding with integrity and conveying genuine concern can make all the difference between rapid or eventual reputation recovery in the public’s consciousness, or continuing with a damaged and tarnished reputation that hampers one’s performance in nearly any arena.

6. Professional online reputation management costs will drop within reach of more individuals and small companies. Let’s face it: professional online reputation management has largely been only a service available to individuals and organizations with larger amounts of resources. But, the increasing number of companies operating in the reputation industry is increasing competition, which will result in lower prices for consumers, and the flexibility and functionality available through internet technologies continue to develop, simplifying and making more efficient various aspects of online reputation management services. These factors will drive costs downward. Lawsuits remain one useful and effective option for some types of defamation, trademark infringement and online harassment, but that option remains costly and will be slower to change without further reforms of laws related to online reputation and less costly access to legal relief. Still, while litigation continues to have some major cost barriers, a lot of relief can be obtained more rapidly and cheaper through a combination of SEO, social media management, public relations, crisis communications and strategic internet content development.

7. Proactive online reputation management becomes more important than ever. As the internet became the go-to source for information about everything, one’s internet reputation became more important than ever. That trend has only increased over time, and one can declare 2020 as truly the moment when one’s internet reputation now outweighs nearly every other information source. As such, proactive online reputation management is now vital, and a core piece of best practices for marketing — with a weak and vulnerable online reputation, one is a sitting duck for any crisis, any bad review, and any crank with an axe to grind. Financial analysts are paying more attention to online reputation, and will increasingly check out whether companies are making efforts to manage their identities online in order to proactively protect themselves from any negative event. Do we even need to mention that HR departments check one’s reputation online before making hiring decisions, and people look up individuals for social reasons as well — including for dating, as well as for other social interactions?

As a sort of “bonus” prediction, the #MeToo Movement blew up in a massive way in 2019 — one can easily predict that this trend will continue to grow, and there seems little to stifle it. In the sense that bad behavior deserves to be called out, and that people should feel empowered to speak out against harassment and abuse, the #MeToo movement is a good thing. In this information age and time of growing, ubiquitous surveillance, it is harder to hide bad behavior, and people’s own actions will out them, more and more. So, expect the awareness created through the #MeToo movement to empower many people to speak out and publicize moments when they are mistreated, and these reports will affect individuals and institutions that are called-out. As people are aware of this societal shift, also expect organizations to become increasingly diligent about improving their policies for dealing with such claims, and responding to the reputational damage fallout. We already see this when companies rapidly suspend those accused, pending investigations, and fire those found to be in noncompliance with corporate policies.

Following reputation management best practices, one can build a robust online reputation and recover from past reputation damage. Focus on making 2020 your best reputation year, ever.

Source: Search Engine Land

Phishing emails are one of the most devious and deceptive means of cyberattack. Often sneaking past automated filters, such emails use social engineering to look real and legitimate enough to trick unsuspecting users into revealing sensitive information.

Beyond automated security tools, there are more people-centric strategies that businesses should adopt to protect themselves against phishing attacks, as described in the 2020 State of the Phish report released Wednesday by the security firm Proofpoint.

Based on a survey of working adults and IT professionals as well as other factors, Proofpoint’s report defines phishing as any type of socially engineered emails. The intent could be to deploy malware, direct users to dangerous websites, or collect sensitive credentials.

About 60% of the respondents said their organization faced fewer or about the same number of phishing attacks last year compared with 2018. That may seem like positive news. However, the trend is one that Proofpoint said it’s seen for a while.

Some 55% of the respondents dealt with at least one successful phishing attack in 2019. Around 54% of those hit by an attack suffered data loss, 49% saw credentials or accounts compromised, 49% were infected by ransomware, 35% were victims of some type of malware infection, and 34% suffered some type of financial loss or wire transfer fraud.

Organizations measure the costs of phishing attacks in a number of ways. The most common side effect was downtime hours for users, cited by more than half of the respondents. Other costs included remediation time for security teams, damage to reputation, business impacts due to loss of intellectual property, direct monetary losses, and compliance issues or fines.

The ultimate goal of many phishing emails is ransomware. Some 33% of the organizations surveyed for the report were infected with ransomware in 2019 and opted to pay the ransom. Another 32% were infected but did not pay.

Among those that did pay the ransom, 22% never regained access to their data, 2% acquiesced to follow-up ransom demands and got back their data, but 7% were hit with additional ransom demands and never recovered their data.

Looking at attacks by a specific method of social engineering, 88% of organizations faced spear phishing attacks, 86% faced business email compromise (BEC), 86% social media-based attacks, 84% smishing (SMS/text phishing), 83% vishing (voice phishing), and 81% malicious USB drops.

To help your organization better defend itself against targeted phishing attacks, Proofpoint offers the following tips:

Commit to building a culture of security

If you want to truly make a change—meaning a mindset and behavior shift that has a positive, day-to-day impact on your organization—you must commit to bringing cybersecurity to the forefront.

Remember that anyone in your organization can be a target of a phishing scam and that anyone in your organization can help or hurt your security posture.

Everyone in your organization should know how they can be more cyber-secure. A broad, companywide security awareness training program will help you do that.

Some 78% of the organizations surveyed for the report said they found a reduction in their phishing susceptibility due to their security awareness training.

Answer the three Ws

You may be familiar with the “five Ws and H” that guide journalists, researchers, and investigators: who, what, where, when, why and how.

At a minimum, answer these three first: 1) Who in my organization is being targeted by attackers? The answer is not as simple as looking at the top tiers of your org chart; 2) What types of attacks are they facing? Knowing the lures and traps attackers are using can help you better position your defenses; and 3) How can I minimize risk if these attacks get through? The answer is to use the information you’ve gathered to deliver the right training to the right people at the right time.

This exercise helps you defend against your most pressing and timely threats. Assessing vulnerabilities at a more granular level and matching those up against your threat intelligence will let you pinpoint where perfect storms are brewing.

Make time for agility

When we get busy, we may want to take a “set it and forget it” approach to cybersecurity. That’s understandable. But it doesn’t work in an era of constantly shifting attack techniques and evolving threats.

Building a security culture takes continued effort and attention. Plan for regular training and reinforcement but be responsive to changes in the threat landscape (and your organization).

Attackers’ targets change over time so the firm recommends identifying the employees most actively targeted by cyberattacks on a monthly, if not weekly, basis.

By pairing granular analysis with organization-wide training, the people being targeted will have a cybersecurity foundation you can build on with additional, targeted training.

Understanding general phishing trends is important. Having benchmarks to measure your users against them is valuable. But other organizations’ data isn’t as important as your organization’s data. You must understand your own threat climate in order to change things in your environment.

“Effective security awareness training must focus on the issues and behaviors that matter most to an organization’s mission,” Joe Ferrara, senior vice president and general manager of Security Awareness Training for Proofpoint, said in a statement.

“We recommend taking a people-centric approach to cybersecurity by blending organization-wide awareness training initiatives with targeted, threat-driven education. The goal is to empower users to recognize and report attacks.”

Proofpoint’s data was based on survey results from 3,500 working adults and 600 IT security professionals from the US, UK, Australia, France, Germany, Japan, and Spain. Information also was derived from 50 million simulated phishing attacks sent by Proofpoint customers over 12 months and nine million suspicious emails reported by the end users of the company’s customers.

Source: Tech Republic

Thanks to leap year, you get an extra day in 2020. But even 366 days can go by quickly—and get nibbled away by the time you waste on repetitive tasks, distractions, daydreaming, or just the lack of a clear plan to get things done. There’s no shortage of apps promising to save your time or manage it better. But beware: Some are so involved that they may end up being time killers themselves.

These apps and services can help you avoid the perils of under- or over-managing your time—and many of them are free. Some automate tasks, saving you from chores like sorting emails or filing in forms. Others provide smart to-do lists that keep you on track for work or life goals. Yet others encourage healthy habits, from reining in unbridled smartphone checking to making sure you exercise and drink enough water. But enough chit-chat: on with the list.

 

 

Planning: Microsoft To Do
List-making will be your easiest to-do item on this free, streamlined app that synchronizes through the cloud across your devices. Just click to make lists of tasks, under categories like “Work” or “Personal,” set due dates and reminders, and break large items into smaller steps. You can also collaborate in online groups, assigning tasks to different members. Fans of soon-to-be-discontinued app Wunderlist, which Microsoft bought, will find this all familiar—and can easily migrate from their Wunderlist setup. (Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, web)

Planning: Any.Do
Resembling Microsoft To Do, this freemiuim app adds some nifty power features. Chief among them: it integrates with your phone’s calendar to create a single interface showing both appointments and to do items. Any.Do offers subscription plans, beginning at $60 per year, with capabilities such as recurring reminders, location-based reminders (like “pick up milk” when you go by the store), productivity reports, and integration with business apps. (Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, web, smart watches, Alexa, Google Home, Slack)

 

 

Habit tracking: Productive
This app for Apple devices is a to-do list for the good things in life. It helps you get started with preconfigured to-do items such as “Eat fruits and veggies,” “Write in my journal,” and the elusive “Inbox zero.” You can configure any other good habits you like and set timeframes for each of them: daily, weekly, monthly, etc. A paid subscription (staring at $30 per year) adds nice-to-have bonuses, such as an unlimited number of habits and location-based reminders. (iOS, iPadOS, WatchOS)

Time tracking: Rescue time
Use Rescue Time, and you’ll get a good overview of how well you’re managing your waking hours. The free app tracks both the programs you use and the sites you visit on your computer or smartphone—assigning them to categories such as Design & Composition (for instance, time spent in Microsoft Word and Photoshop) or Social Networking (time spent on Twitter or Facebook). The mobile app also tracks how many times you pick up your phone. A paid version ($72 per year) offers a few extras, such as alerts after you’ve spent a set amount of time in one app. (Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Linux, Chrome, Firefox)

 

 

Focusing: Forest
This $2 app makes avoiding distraction into a game. Activate the timer, and a virtual tree starts growing onscreen. If you make it through the time period you set without fiddling with your phone (the default is 10 minutes), a full tree emerges. Give into temptation, and dead wood appears instead. Use Forest to set aside focused work slots or phone-free time when with friends. A free Chrome extension provides the same benefits on your computer and can be set to block certain web sites like Facebook while the timer is running. (Android, iOS, Chrome)

Project managing: Trello
Track multiphase projects—for yourself or a small team—with this freemium service. You can create boards with columns for different stages of projects, such as “Brainstorm,” “Consolidate Input,” and “Signoff,” then create cards for individual projects or parts of projects, such as “Develop marketing plan.” As work progresses, you can drag items from column to column and assign team members to various parts of the projects. Trello’s free tier offers plenty for individuals and small teams. Paid plans start at $10 per user per month. (Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, web)

 

 

Scheduling: Doodle
Spare the long email chains when setting up a meeting. This freemium service lets you post an online calendar with possible meeting times and allow everyone who receives the link to check off what works for them. Upgrading to a paid account (starting at $48 per year) adds handy features such as syncing doodles to your online calendar and automatically emailing calendar invites to participants. Paying also eliminates the onslaught of advertising on the site. (Android, iOS, web)

Email sorting: Edison Mail
This free app (formerly called EasilyDo Mail) sorts your inbox into categories such as Travel, Bills & Receipts, Entertainment, and Subscriptions. Each box extracts relevant information—displaying upcoming and past flight and hotel reservations, for instance, or providing unsubscribe buttons for newsletters. Edison supports webmail like Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo, as well as Exchange and IMAP email from your business domain. Note: Edison collects anonymized data to support its online trends data service, and formerly allowed human staffers to read user emails in order to train its machine learning. (Android, iOS, MacOS)

Researching: Pocket
It’s easy to find information on the web. And Mozilla’s free bookmarking service, which is integrated into the Firefox browser and available as an extension for Chrome, makes it easy to keep track of it until you have time to give it your full attention. Just click the icon to save a copy of any page to your online account. You can also add tags to organize the saved pages by topics. The mobile app allows you to browse from your phone and save pages from your mobile browser. (Android, iOS, web, Firefox, Chrome)

Researching: Google Alerts
Rather than skimming through the news or running manual searches, let Google compile research and automatically send an email digest. Just visit the search engine’s Alerts page, sign in with your free Google account, and enter search terms for the topics you want to follow. You can include multiple terms (such as names of companies) for each alert, configure as many alerts as you want, and refine alerts based on features such as regions or languages to include. (Web)

Networking: LinkedIn QR codes
Forget business cards (which you probably have already done anyway), and make connections instead through the QR code scanner in LinkedIn’s mobile app. Just tap the icon on the right end of the search bar to display your personal code for people to scan and to capture the code displayed on their screen. Invites to connect go out automatically from there. (Android, iOS)

Accessing Google: Google Assistant
The font of all knowledge is a constant companion for many of us. This voice-activated app provides the quickest way to access many of Google’s services, especially if you are on your phone or your hands are full (or you’re driving). Beyond web searches, you can ask Assistant to do things like check the weather, find movie times, provide driving directions, set reminders, and translate text or audio. You can also access utilities like timers or alarms, a calculator, or smart home controls. (Android, iOS, Google Home speakers, Wear OS)

Form filling: LastPass
Password managers are an essential tool to create, store, and auto-fill strong passwords for website logins. They also save time with lots of other online form filling, such as entering your address for deliveries or your credit card information for payments. The free LastPass app allows you to create profiles for this and other categories of information that you can enter with one click of its browser plugin button. The app itself is locked down with a main password, and all data you store in it is encrypted. Paid upgrade features for LastPass ($36 per year) are minimal, such as ability to share access with other people. (Android, iOS, MacOS, web, browser plug-ins)

Scanning: TurboScan
Sometimes the best way to file papers is to convert them into files. This $6 Android and iOS app uses your phone’s camera to create color or black-and-white PDF files of any documents you photograph, even something like a white board. It stores searchable copies on your phone and also allows easy sharing via email, AirDrop, or cloud services like Dropbox and Evernote. (Android, iOS)

Source: www.fastcompany.com